Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) start and (b) end date is for the target in the Zero Waste Scotland’s Corporate Plan to reduce the extraction of raw materials by one third; what data was used to arrive at this target, and for what reason the figure of one third was set.
Zero Waste Scotland's (ZWS) Corporate Plan for 2025-2030 includes present and future targets beyond the life of this Corporate Plan.
The reference to seeking reduction of Scotland's extraction of raw materials by one third is based on a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report, which stresses the importance of high-income countries reducing their material footprint by bending the resource use curve to achieve economic growth, reduced inequality, improved quality of life and dramatically reduced environmental impacts.
During the lifetime of the current Corporate Plan, Scottish Government will continue to work with ZWS in developing data and policies required to establish a baseline and trajectory for future target setting to measure progress towards a circular economy.